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[When he first realizes he’s missing two weeks, the natural conclusion is that he’d ported out. There are no new memories this time—save perhaps, disjointed snippets of faces and conversations that he assumes are a side-effect of the process—but he’s heard that’s not uncommon. Better that way, really. He’d prefer simply disappearing for a couple of weeks than returning with 20 years of new memories in his head. It’s inconvenient, he thinks, but not particularly noteworthy.

At least, until he opens the Network.

Apparently, he’s not the only one who vanished for two weeks. He reads the other posts with growing interest—and frustration. There are multiple references to some kind of nightmare world, a dystopia, another universe, but little explanation into specifics. And, try as he might, Fett certainly doesn’t remember.

He is very tired of this place tampering with his memories.]

I was one of the missing. Don’t remember anything.

[It occurs to him that if anyone else remembers events that involved him, it would probably help if they saw his face—or at least, the next best substitute.

The post abruptly switches to video, showing a distinct green Mandalorian battle helmet.]

What happened?

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[The helmet is new, but Sal hasn't forgotten that voice.]

Welcome back, you joyless bastard.

The three goddesses from back during the almost-apocalypse, remember them? Well shit, once they left this part of the multiverse, the cosmic aftershock combined with the weak dimensional structure of this place caused some kind of...dimensional echo.

Sent a bunch of people away to some other world. Guess you were among them too.

[He ignores the flippant greeting and focuses on the explanation. There’s a lot of jargon that he isn’t sure if Sal made up, but the basics are understandable.]

Know anything about this “other world?”

Didn't make the trip over myself. But for what was only about two whole weeks here, some have memories of years in that other place.

Maybe you got off a little easier, not remembering. Like a nightmage getting into your head and thinking you're someone else, that shit can be disorienting at best.

[So he’d potentially forgotten years of time in that other place? He supposes it’s nothing out of the ordinary for this place, but even so—he’s getting very tired of this theme.]

Everyone else remembers?

Mixed bag, seems like.

You're really that worried over it? It could've been a blessing to just have escaped that shit, from what they're saying about it.

Escape doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Neither does forgetting.

[That statement hits too close to home for Sal, leaving little room for further convincing. For a long time those words were everything that drove her; she couldn't forget what was taken away, and more than that, she wouldn't let those responsible forget either.

The cost of that life, of course, was just about anything else she had left.]

Guess you're right.

Hope you get what you're looking for, but don't forget what you said about being enslaved to something, either.

[It’s apt advice, if from an unlikely source. Rex had told him similarly—that he shouldn’t linger on what he had forgotten or what he will forget. Fett isn’t trying to. It’s just difficult to ignore when it keeps happening.]

I’ll remember.

You really don't remember?
Are you still crazy?

No.

[To both questions.]

Have we met?

Yes, we met!
How can you not remember that shit?

That's what I'm trying to find out.

Tell me what happened.

Lots of shit happened.
Me and a bunch of other people got put in handcuffs and chains, just cause we had powers.
You took us to a bad place.
You were saying all kinds of crazy shit on the way there.
You nearly killed a guy.

[...Fett gets the bad feeling that this is a conversation that will require guiding questions.]

Define “bad place” and “crazy shit.”

The bad place was like a jail or a prison. It was more than just being locked up. They messed with people's minds too, made them think they wanted to work for the them. The guys running it wanted me to help them find other people with powers. I said no and they became real assholes.

You said stuff about the Empire and Vader. They weren't even there. It wasn't that galaxy even. And you thought we were on a planet called Denon. We weren't.

[As Fett reads, it isn’t difficult to put the pieces together, however troubling the picture they form may be. There was a containment facility where imPorts were kept and indoctrinated into hunting down their peers. Fett had apparently hunted this person, unaware of where he was or who he was serving. The conclusion is obvious: he’d been captured and used.

Fett doesn’t respond for several moments, absorbing the revelation. His first thought, naturally, is tracking down those responsible, but given this took place in another universe, that’s likely not possible. His next thought: how had they managed to reduce him to that state in two weeks?]

You said they did something to prisoners’ minds. Do you know what?

All kinds of shit.
They started by talking, saying all kinds of bullshit about how we were bad and we could only be good if we did what they wanted.
They'd send people to solitary confinement.
They had other imports on their side that used their powers on us.
They kept us in dark rooms with no windows so we never knew when it was day or night.
They wouldn't let us sleep, wouldn't give us food.
They tortured people and we could hear them scream and they told us we were next.
They tried to give me drugs and that's when I got away.

[None of the provided description is shocking to Fett. If anything, it’s familiar—no wonder he thought he was working with the Empire.

But which of those exactly had been the one to make him crack? Solitary confinement wouldn’t have done him in. Nor, he thinks, would torture or the threat of it. Had it been the abilities of another imPort? He no longer has an immunity to mind control; it’s a possibility.

The last option is… not worth thinking about.]

Who else was working for them?

[Eddie stares at the question for a moment, not wanting to get other imports into trouble.]

A lot of people. I don't know their names.
By then end, t was like almost half of the imports working for them, almost half working against them and the rest of us just trying to survive.
I don't know if everyone made it. I heard some people didn't come back.

Perhaps you should consider yourself lucky.

[So he's been told.]

I don't.

So I can see.

It was another world. One where you either got assimilated or fought back against those in charge.

I doubt that it will have much bearing in this world.

Another world we may have spent years in.

[Longer, even, than the time he’s spent in this one. Perhaps the events that transpired there truly are irrelevant, but Fett wants to decide that for himself.]

You think nothing significant could have happened in that time?

Of course it could.

And what of the things you find out? Of what use will they be to you now that that world has vanished from our reach?

It bothers you that we forget this place when we go back.

[Rex had admitted as much to him, months ago. The clone had told him not to dwell on it, because they had no choice. But now? Fett has the choice to learn what had happened in that other world. Why wouldn’t he take it?]

If you could remember, would you?

I do remember.

It's nothing good.

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was that a fucking dad joke

it wasn't but by god it SHOULD HAVE BEEN

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